Frodeno, Morrison take victory at Ironman 70.3 Auckland

In only his third ever 70.3 race, Jan Frodeno produced the fastest run of the day to beat out a world class field that consisted of local favourites Terenzo Bozzone and Bevan Docherty. Frodeno kept pace with the race leaders all day long, and came out of the second transition behind Bozzone and the American Andrew Yoder.

Frodeno, 32, competing for just the third time over the IRONMAN 70.3 distance, came out of the second transition in third alongside Kiwi Terenzo Bozzone and a little over two minutes down on the long-time leader, Andrew Yoder of the USA.

It was at the beginning of the run where Frodeno made his move to quickly pass the top two and open up a lead by the 5km mark. The German would eventually run his way to his first ever Ironman 70.3 victory.

Australia’s Richie Cunningham produced a great run himself to power past Bozzone and claimed second. The locals had something to cheer about with Bozzone grabbing the last podium spot.

Meanwhile, it was a seventh place finish by Craig in his maiden Ironman 70.3 race in Auckland. While disappointed by his result, Crowie extended his gratitude to the event and congratulated Frodeno on his victory.

Craig put up a Facebook post and sent out a tweet, saying, “#IM703Auckland is a great event. Not happy with 7th, but satisfied. Congrats @janfrodeno, amazing race”.

The run also proved to be the deciding factor in the women’s race with Catriona Morrison producing a sizzling time to beat defending champion Annabel Luxford.

The 37-year-old Scot, a three-time former world duathlon champion, trailed the Australian Luxford by more than two-and-a-half minutes after the bike. However, by the midpoint of the run that gap was down to 53 seconds and by the 15 km mark Morrison had caught and passed Luxford.

“It’s all so exciting when it all comes together in the end,” Morrison said. “You can’t really believe it is going to happen until you take the lead and you tell yourself to keep going. I had faith in my own run, but what you don’t know is what your opposition has in store. A lot of people, when you pass them, they dig in and hang on.”

New Zealander Jo Lawn didn’t let down the home fans by grabbing third spot to ensure a kiwi presence in both the men’s and women’s races.